Visiting the Melkites

Today I had the blessing of attending the ordination of a new deacon at Holy Transfiguration parish. Holy Transfiguation is a Melkite parish. Melkites are Eastern Catholics originating from Egypt, so some of their liturgy continues to be in Arabic. The actual ordination ceremony was suprisingly brief. I say this as a lover of all things Eastern and was under the impression, apparently mistakenly, that anything that the West could do, the East could do make much longer - with lots of bells and incense and stuff. I was told that the ordination ceremony for priesthood is even briefer. I guess that this is one time I will be happy to take the longer Western service. After the ordination cermony there was a celebratory meal with lots of hummus, spinich pie, lamb, chicken and all sorts of mid-eastern dishes. The head of the parish council at Holy Transfiguration is a former Southern Baptist, go figure. Tomorrow we have practice confessions again. I get to pretend to be a teenager and have to hear the mock confession of another student pretending to be a young child. Wish me luck.